Sue Scheible is a staff reporter for The Patriot Ledger who writes a weekly column, A Good Age, about life after 50. In her blog, she shares extra anecdotes about the people she meets, readers' e-mails, videos, photos and phone messages, and ideas
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Sue Scheible is a staff reporter for The Patriot Ledger who writes a weekly column, A Good Age, about life after 50. In her blog, she shares extra anecdotes about the people she meets, readers' e-mails, videos, photos and phone messages, and ideas for what to do in retirement or to prepare for retirement. Sometimes she just likes to share what she's doing that is fun and engaging, often in videos or photos, or my family situations. She may explore her reactions to issues of aging and pass along good information for family members and caregivers. This is also a good place to recognize some of the many dedicated people who work in the elder services and geriatric care field.

Sunday I went to Weston to find out more. "It's a fabulous story," Gloria Greis, executive director of the Needham Historical Society, told me, as the tower was open to the public for the rare occasion. Greis had answers for everyone's questions; she has made quite a study of the history.

I climbed the 60-plus steps to the top with Wendy Pearl, preservation planner, of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, for a view of the river through the budding trees.

In the 1880s, Greis explained, the old, established Protestant communities of Brahmin Boston, were threatened by the waves of immigration of Italians and Irish. So some of the upper class came up with the Leif Erikson story of how the country was discovered by Vikings -- to counter the Columbus-discovered-America legend.

Vikings v.s. Columbus went on for quite a while, long enough for Eben Nelson Horsford to rally the Norse-leaning troops, "very colorful characters," to build Norumbega Tower, where a mythical Norumbega Fort supposedly had existed.

How about the Viking prows on the Longfellow Bridge piers in Cambridge and Viking motifs the Boston financial district?